NORD Architects take up 12-week Australian residency

Nathan Johnson

The founders of Denmark-based NORD Architects will call Australia home between February and May of 2015 as joint participants in the Australian Institute of Architect’s (AIA) Droga Architect in Residence program.

Johannes Molander Pedersen and Morten Rask Gregersen will alternate in the residency between February and May, with an overlap in late March, providing an opportunity to present a joint public lecture at Sydney Opera House.

The architects will be put up by the AIA in Droga Apartments (pictured below), a Sydney-based warehouse apartment complex designed by Durbach Block which was the winner of the AIA’s Robin Boyd Award for Housing and the Wilkinson Award in 1998. (Images: Michael Wee)

During their stay Pedersen and Gregersen will investigate and research ways to creating solutions for societal challenges via architecture, as well as craft a report on their “research by design” residency project to be released in April.

The report will be the required element of the Droga Architect in Residence program which asks that participants produce a body of architectural work that emphasises a strong public and social benefit and which will be clearly communicated through their residency project submission.

Pedersen and Gregersen will also supervise student workshops at UTS Sydney, and present lectures scheduled in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Pedersen said architecture will be the common denominator for his engagement with various parties in the local community.

“Architecture has the ability to activate and combine knowledge from various professional fields and localities into something concrete and tangible,” Pedersen said.

“Additionally, the intricate process of developing architecture or an urban scheme holds the potential to become a structured form of collaboration that engages users and citizens to innovate the public realm.”